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Mitt Romney taunts President Obama from Solyndra

A Romney aide said there was fear that the White House would seek to stop the event. | AP Photo

While Axelrod was in Boston attacking Romney’s record as a former governor there, Romney defended himself here. Asked about his state being 47th of 50 in job creation during his four-year term, Romney touted his lowering of the unemployment rate.

“When I was governor of Massachusetts, we took the unemployment rate from 5.6 percent down to 4.7 percent,” he said. “I think 4.7 percent’s a pretty good number. My guess is the people of America would be very pleased if they could see a number like 4.7 percent. I’d hope to be able to get there if I were president.”

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The day kicked off with plenty of drama. Reporters were told to arrive at a Redwood City hotel to await the campaign’s press bus, but were not told until they boarded the bus where it would be going.

Then the bus drove to Romney’s Palo Alto hotel, where the candidate boarded the bus with a senior aide and his regular security detail. The newly minted GOP nominee sat in the bus’s first row, but did not engage with reporters other than offering a “good morning” and noting the larger-than-normal contingent of journalists following him.

At the event, Romney defended the secrecy involved in planning it. A senior aide told reporters earlier that there was concern the Obama administration would work with local officials to prevent Romney from staging the photo-op and press conference, which took place on the sidewalk of a public street on which Solyndra’s former headquarters sits.

“I think there are people who don’t want to see this event occur, don’t want to have questions asked about this particular investment, don’t want to have people delve into the idea that the president took a half a billion dollars of taxpayer money and devoted it to an enterprise that was owned in large measure by his campaign contributors,” he said. “This is a serious conflict of interest. This ought to be a big story, and I think there are a number of people among the president’s team who don’t want that story to get out. We wanted to make sure it did.”

Solyndra is trying to rival her big sister Katrina's ability to make the federal government look incompetent. But whose baby is she?

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah used Solyndra to argue against worker-training benefits. Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina used it to argue that the federal government should stay out of autism research. Disaster relief, cancer treatments, you name it: Solyndra has been an argument against them.

And this week, the government faced the prospect of a shutdown because House Republicans added a provision to the spending bill to draw more attention to -- what else? -- Solyndra.

"Because of some of the horrible weather we have had over the past several weeks, we have all agreed to add emergency funds we didn't originally plan in this bill, and Republicans have identified a couple of cuts," explained Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, including "a cut to a loan-guarantee program that gave us the Solyndra scandal."

What McConnell neglected to mention is that Solyndra was cleared to participate in this loan-guarantee program by President George W. Bush's administration. He also did not mention that the legislation creating the loan-guarantee program, approved by the Republican-controlled Congress in 2005, received yes votes from -- wait for it -- DeMint, Hatch and McConnell. -- http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

2 billion a year EVERY YEAR for big oil loopholes and tax breaks. Repeal of these breaks repeatedly filibustered by the TREASON party aka the republicans. S.940 Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act and again with S.2204 Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act.

And yet, conservatards want to crow about the failure of startup solyndra.

Because when you're done filling your tank, we know you're just wanting to give even MORE to guys with gold plated toilets on their tax free jets. SUCKERS

Failing business??? Hmmm.....Solyndra must have some money left, otherwise Vultureboy wouldn't be there.

Mitt's just ****ed that he didn't get in on that action before it went bankrupt

Obama is responsible for thousands of unemployed workers today.

Obama where are the JOBS ?

Romney’s new web ad, released today, shows he’s noticed, too. It targets the real cause of Obama’s headaches – his borrow-and-tax policies which have lead to… nowhere: Solyndra, First Solar, ECOtality, and SunPower.

Not Even Half

The facts, Ma’am:

? The Obama Administration Loaned Over Half A Billion Dollars To Solyndra – Which Later Went Bankrupt And Laid Off 1,100 Employees.

CORRUPTION......................at the highest levels of the Obama Administration needs to be investigated:

The Energy Department’s Inspector General Found That Contracts Were Steered To “Friends And Family.”

“The Department of Energy’s inspector general, Gregory Friedman, who was not a political appointee, chastised the alternative-energy loan and grant programs for their absence of ‘sufficient transparency and accountability.’ He has testified that contracts have been steered to ‘friends and family.’” (Peter Schweizer, “Obama Campaign Backers And Bundlers Rewarded With Green Grants And Loans,” Newsweek, 11/12/11)

Old News and useless. We cannot let China to outpace us. We do not need to depend on Oil Thugs who reap us everyday. Romney took Government money and destroyed workers' lives, then ran with the money to Swiss Banks. What a heartless Guy!

Old News and useless. We cannot let China to outpace us. We do not need to depend on Oil Thugs who reap us everyday. Romney took Government money and destroyed workers' lives, then ran with the money to Swiss Banks. What a heartless Guy!

Obama = heatless guy................please reference the thousands of American workers losing their jobs because of his incompetent bad moves..................

You do realize that Bush killed the entire loan deal before leaving office, and it was one of the first things that Obama undid of Bush...by specifically undoing the cancellation and getting the loan deal to Solyndra to go through...don't you?

People definitely care about Solyndra. I think it was a travesty that our country didn't make any attempt to protect this fragile industry from China's financial bullying.

China spent 30 billion subsidizing solar energy, with the deliberate intent of bankrupting its competitors. Not only did it work, but America didn't seem to notice or care, and in fact 50% of us seem to be glad it happened. Apparently, half of our country would celebrate a foreign power attacking us, because it makes the current leader look bad.

While I don't think government should be loaning out money to companies like this, we absolutely need to encourage and protect new technology companies such as Solyndra, and fight at least as hard as China does.

Will he go and stand by those factories he closed that got his pockets fat? Will he go to the statehouse in Massachusetts where everything he stood for he is now against? Will he go and explain his dismal job measures as GOVERNOR. In laymens terms GTFOH Romney, no one is buying your wolf tickets. #strawmandown

Solyndra loan guarantee was a multi-year process that the Bush Administration launched in 2007

Exclusive Timeline: Bush Administration Advanced Solyndra Loan Guarantee for Two Years, Media Blow the Story

The Bush team tried to conditionally approve the Solyndra loan just before President Obama took office.

"What critics fail to mention is that the Solyndra deal is more than three years old, started under the Bush Administration, which tried to conditionally approve the loan right before Obama took office. Rather than “pushing funds out the door too quickly,” the Obama Administration restructured the original loan when it came into office to further protect the taxpayers’ investment."

Exactly, Virginia will not fall for the smut being thrown against the walls by Strawman Romney. I cannot wait for the robot to debate him. He will not be able to hide behiind Faux News and their softball interviews forever.

Why does this senior aide to Romney get anonymity? What was said that shouldn't be on the record, especially the part about how they were all a-skeered that Big Bad Barack would send unmanned drones and Navy Seals to wipe out Mittingford's photo op? Good Lord.

Spinmaster Romney is now attacking the President for things that have never happened, but in his mind, might have happened. How about an article on Mitt Romney's increasing paranoia and delusions of persecution. According to DSM IV, his mental state is in question.

BTW, it would have been nice for once if a story about Solyndra made mention of China flooding the market with silicon in a trade war that put Solyndra out of business.

Solyndra used a photo-voltaic process that was not dependent on silicon. Silicon was expensive. That's why Solyndra was a good bet.

China subsidized the price of silicon for its own companies to the tune of $30 billion. Now China makes 75% of the world's photo-voltaic panels and the price of silicon is climbing again.

But no, let's focus on Mitt's outrage at something that never actually happened.